2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Once the last of the stragglers had left the dinner table, Rio and Willow gently urged Giselle and Sam to leave for the evening without clearing the dishes, and took the job for themselves, carrying everything through the service door and into the kitchen.

Mari walked toward where Cisco still sat at the other head of the table. He radiated calm satisfaction as he watched her move closer.

"What do you look so pleased about?" Mari asked, a smile tugging at her lips.

"You mean aside from the fact that I'm anticipating how wonderful you'll feel in my lap?" He took her in with a predatory glance. "I realized during dinner that it feels right. You know? Everyone around the dinner table, talking about whatever, enjoying each other's company."

When she arrived, he leaned back and spread his knees, making room for her. She lowered herself to sit on his thigh. He eased one hand between her knees and leaned in to kiss her bare shoulder.

"I know what you mean," she said as she ran her fingers through his black hair, enjoying the feeling of his curls. "It really felt like a family."

"It was exactly how I always wanted it to be. But no matter how hard I tried, I could never get it to work because his needs were the only ones that mattered." He rubbed his face on her shoulder, his whiskers tickling her skin. "Thank you for helping me accomplish this. Tonight proved to me that no matter what happens going forward, it was worth the cost."

Mari leaned her head on his shoulder. She was so fortunate to have this passionate, wonderful gargoyle in her life. "I love how much you care about the people around you. And even if we somehow fail, the improvement in their lives, however brief, is worth the risk."

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her against his chest, the warmth of his body relaxing her. "We won't fail." He kissed the top of her head. "I've never been more sure of that than I am tonight."

A few days later, Rio led Mari by the hand to the solarium. She hadn't been in there since the piercing just days after her father had died and even though that experience should have made the vaulted glass room feel more like hers than it had previously, it still seemed like a place she shouldn't be.

"I saw the way you looked around the place when we were here the last time," Rio said.

Mari nodded. "When I'm here, the past couple of weeks don't seem real. It's like he's going to come in any minute and catch us, like he did when we were kids." Her father had found the two of them playing in among the expensive plants when they were small—maybe ten or so—and he had hit them until they screamed their promises never to go inside without permission again.

"It never scared me as much as it did you, even after that. I think because this was the only place where it felt like he might actually care about me."

Mari met his eyes. "For whatever it might be worth, I think he did care about you in his way, especially in the beginning. Before my mother left, and the ritual…" Before he got really bad, she didn't say. She didn't have to.

Rio took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "He brought me here to teach me how to read, you know. After he found out that I couldn't."

She couldn't decide if that would have been a good experience or not. The father she'd known would never have taken a young man under his wing that way. "How was that?"

"Shockingly nice." He chuckled. "He was very patient. I know it's hard to believe."

Mari smiled and wrapped an arm around him. "It's not. Having the people around him well-educated was important to him. I remember how angry Cisco was that he was forced to go take college classes."

"Spirits, he hated that." Rio laughed. "Especially when your father would make him read poetry before dinner."

Mari leaned into him. "There were good times in there."

Rio nodded, hugging her close. "There were bad times, too."

She knew she was only aware of a fraction of the terrible things her father had done to him and Cisco. She hadn't asked about the details because if they wanted her to know, they would tell her. "I'm ready to listen, if you're ready to share."

He looked around at the oasis of peace her father had loved so dearly. "I'm not sure if this is the best place to talk about it or the worst."

Mari led him to one of the benches by the pond where huge koi swam in lazy circles. "I think it will be hard no matter where we are." She sat slowly, holding his hand as he decided if he would join her. "We can also just sit here and watch the fish."

"Most people thought having to bottom at his monthly orgies was the worst of it." A sigh shook him as he sat heavily. He didn't look at her as he spoke, only stared into the dark water of the pond beside them, his eyes unfocused. "But that was easy for me. Cisco would ask me all the time if I wanted him to make me forget, but I didn't care about that. Most of the people in attendance were too afraid of your father to harm one of his favorite toys."

Mari squeezed his hand, but didn't say anything. This was his story to share or not, without pressure or judgment.

"It wasn't until the end that things really started to get bad. Those parties changed overnight from free-for-all sex into snuff films."

Mari couldn't control the sob that escaped her. She'd had no idea it had gotten that bad. Why had no one told her? The answer came as quickly as the question itself. Because there was nothing she could have done and it would have killed her to know.

"I didn't bottom for those parties. He always brought in people from the club." His expression grew bleak. "For those parties, he made me top the poor souls he brought in. When I refused, he said he would kill them if I didn't do it. And I knew with absolute certainty that he would do it."

Mari rested her hand on his chest when his breath hitched, thinking about the scars that marked his skin underneath. It had been so much worse than she'd ever imagined it could be.

Rio swallowed thickly. "So, he made me hard with his magic and I did it. And I can't forgive myself for it, even though I know it saved their lives."

She leaned into him and hugged him as hard as she could as the tears overtook him. Her father had devised the perfect way to torture a kind soul like him.

They both cried quietly for a few minutes. When he started to back away from her, she let him go. As close as they'd become over the last few weeks, she'd realized that contact sometimes made him uncomfortable. And no wonder.

He wiped his face and shook his head, determined to finish what he had started. "After that I let Cisco make me forget." He sniffled. "But there were only a few more parties. I have no idea what happened the night of the last one, but your father was dead the next day."

Cisco stepped from the shadows. "I'll tell you if you want to know. You deserve the truth about what happened if you want it." He sighed, passing a hand over his face. "But I don't think you should ask and I won't restore those memories to you."

Rio blinked up at him. "I trust you with everything I am. I don't want to know."

Cisco cupped the side of Rio's face with one hand. "The only reason he walked out of that room alive was because there were too many of them. I couldn't kill all of them before they would be able to take me down and I didn't want to die trying and abandon you to that."

Rio leaned into his touch. "I forgive you."

"You're so much more than I deserve." Cisco's eyes darted to Mari. "You both are. I'm more sorry than I can say that I let it get to that point."

Mari reached to hold his free hand. "You thought you could help by being inside."

Cisco nodded sadly. "I realized that night that any control I thought I'd had was part of the game to him. He couldn't be tempered. He couldn't be fixed. He was evil and if I didn't do something to stop him, so was I." He tightened his fingers around Mari's. "The next time I was alone with him, I killed him."

He leaned down to kiss Mari, and then Rio, his lips soft and unhurried. "Why don't both of you head to the pool house for a while and enjoy each other? I've got a few things to finish up and then I'll be along."

He escorted them both to the hallway and then left them each with a scorching kiss filled with the promise of pleasures untold. Mari and Rio walked hand in hand to the pool house.

Rio led Mari to the pool house in silent contemplation. The conversation from the solarium was obviously on his mind, but she didn't think she was entitled to those thoughts. He shut the door behind them and started to disrobe mechanically.

When he reached to take off his joggers, Mari grabbed his hand and stood quietly next to him until he looked up at her. "Hey, what's going on in there?"

He smiled reflexively, but there was little of his usual joy in it. "Cisco carries all of the worst memories of that time from you and me and who knows how many others. I worry that it's too much to ask of him to hold on to all of that."

Mari wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close, resting her head against his bare shoulder. "I worry about that too. Sometimes I wonder how much more there is that we don't know about."

"Yeah. He's got some from Nova and Karma that I know about, but I'm sure there are more." He hugged her, filling her with warmth, and sighed. "All of the stuff that was so bad that we can't bear to remember it and he's just carrying it all around inside of him. How is that not killing him?"

She wanted to soothe him with a pleasant lie, but he deserved better than that. "I think all we can do is ask him if he's okay and offer him whatever love and support we can."

Rio leaned to nuzzle the side of her head in a particularly cat-like gesture. "There's a reason you're his treasure," he murmured into her hair.

They held each other quietly for a moment, enjoying the closeness. The second he went from wanting comfort to wanting something else, she felt it like a pull somewhere deep in her belly, irresistible and urgent.

She ran her hand up his back, feeling the strength and power of his body as he pressed against her. "What support can I offer you? What do you need?"

"Only one thing will ease me now, I'm afraid." He trailed kisses down the side of her face.

"Tell me." She turned her head and lifted her chin.

He kissed her pulse point and then nipped her jaw before whispering, "The taste of you all over me."

"I think I can accommodate that request." She slid the straps of her sundress off her shoulders one at a time and then let it drop to the ground.

Rio nuzzled into the crook of her neck and purred loudly. "I'm going to devour you." He nibbled on her collarbone and smoothed his hands over her hips, slipping his fingers inside her panties and pushing them down as his mouth traveled lower.

Mari shivered as his lips ghosted over her sternum. She wrapped her arms around his head and guided him to her right side. He zeroed in on her nipple and tugged the piercing between his teeth, reaching around her to grab a double handful of her ass at the same time. Gasping, she arched her back to intensify the sensation. "Tell me what you're going to do to me."

After a few seconds of delicious torture he backed away and looked up at her. "I'm not going to stop until you're dripping all over my face." He lifted her easily into his arms and walked to the bed.

He sat down with her straddling his lap and then leaned back against the pillows with a dirty smile. Tightening his hands around her hips, he urged her northward along his body. Rio watched her with rapt attention as she moved slowly, his gaze moving over the curves of her breasts with appreciation. She would never tire of the way he looked at her, like she was the answer to every prayer he'd ever had.

The moment she was in range, Rio lifted his head to bite her thigh, his mouth warm and tempting on her skin. She ran her fingers through his hair briefly, and then reached up to hold the headboard as she positioned herself over his face.

"You're so beautiful." He licked her inner thigh, making her tremble with the flash of need that shot through her body. "I could worship you all night and still not get enough." He nuzzled against her with a happy murmur before stroking his tongue over the length of her seam.

Mari tightened her hands around the headboard to resist the urge to move, wanting to enjoy the anticipation for as long as she possibly could. He chuckled when he felt her tense, and then gripped her thighs to pull her closer. He ran his tongue swiftly up to her clit and gave it a filthy kiss that went on for what seemed an age, rocking her hips in time with his lips. She was panting for breath when he finally sucked her aching nub into his mouth with a greedy slurp.

She cried out, her hips driving downward, chasing the sensation and needing more. His fingers tightened around her thighs as he got to work, using every part of his mouth to play her like a godsdamned symphony. She rolled her hips in time with the sultry rhythm he dictated. He kissed and stroked and nibbled her right to the edge several times, only slowing when her hips shivered right before the crescendo.

Her magic strummed through her like a low note that went on and on without a beginning or an end. When she had enough of his teasing she ground her hips down against his face, which was exactly the signal he had been waiting for. He redoubled his efforts, pulling her down against him and applying more direct pressure to her clit.

Mari rode his face to what would have once been a perfectly satisfying orgasm, her body clenching deliciously, but now that release only made her crave more because she knew there were higher reaches beyond. Sliding down his body swiftly, she tugged down his joggers and impaled herself on his cock while her muscles still shuddered. The abrupt stretch filled her with absolute bliss.

His hips rose to drive into her, his head canted back as a rough moan exploded from his lips. She gripped his throat and leaned down to kiss him, growling hungrily against his mouth when she tasted herself there. Yes. This was what she needed.

She was overcome by the urge to claim him, to make him hers so that everyone would know immediately who he belonged to. To mark him so that there would never be a doubt that she was the rightful owner of every delicious inch of him. Her necklace tingled around her throat.

Darkness rolled toward her from every corner of the room as time slowed to a crawl around her. She felt Dohal's gaze first, like a heat over her skin, tracing the curves of her ass and up her back as she moved, fucking Rio in slow motion.

"Trying to make me jealous again, bavi?" Dohal's voice was sex and sin made into a sound that wrapped her in desire and made goosebumps rise all over her body.

Her magic strained for him, the tendrils of it stretching behind her to find him. "I'm not trying to make you anything. I want you to leave me alone."

He scoffed. "You can't lie to me when your magic is rubbing against me like that. I know exactly what you want. For me to bend you over and take you even as you're draped over him."

Her magic thrummed with a vibration she felt deep in her cunt. The sharpness of it made her startle and cry out.

"Mmm," he breathed. "I wonder what noises you'll make when I drive into you the first time and make you mine."

The echo of what she'd just been thinking about Rio made her glance down at him. He seemed unaware of anything that was happening in this…whatever it was.

"His fear would taste so delicious," Dohal said as he crept closer, inch by inch, until it seemed like he was right behind her. The shadows that made up his body coiled around her, brushing over her, light and dangerous as the tips of claws.

Mari's magic careened through her in a rush at his touch, violent and dark, seeking him out.

"I know you sense it as keenly as I do." He leaned to kiss her neck, his breath hot. The sharp edge of his teeth scratched her skin. Her entire body quaked. "Thick on your tongue. Better than blood. Better than sex."

Oh, how she wanted it. How she hungered for it. She knew how satisfying it would be. How sweet .

Her body clenched with the need for it. She looked down at Rio. His head was thrown back, a moan falling from his lips. Somehow, she knew the magic required for what she needed. Without conscious thought, she started to twine her power around him, the tendrils of it blue and smokey.

Flexing this other part of her felt so good, like scratching an itch she just couldn't reach until exactly this moment.

When she glanced over her shoulder at Dohal, the approval and desire were naked in what she could see of his expression. Suddenly, she doubted the intentions of the urge that filled her. Whatever it was she was about to do might really hurt Rio, and she had sworn to herself that she would never do that.

She shook her head, pulling her magic back, curling it back into herself. The backlash stung enough that she flinched. "I won't."

"Perhaps you need a more sturdy lover who can sate the monster inside you."

That felt like the truth, like exactly what she'd felt in that moment when her magic had almost gotten away from her. "Are you volunteering?"

A dark chuckle wrapped around her, filling her with his arousal, thick and heady. "What you need I can't give you. But perhaps there are others who can."

"And what is it that you think I need?"

His smile was slow and sultry. "Sacrifice."

When the long, sibilant final syllable left his decadent lips, she shattered. Her orgasm threw her from the vision—or visitation—back into normal time. As the pleasure overwhelmed her, she fell forward, gripping Rio's chest.

He jolted as her magic coursed through him, tensing as his own climax pulled him under. She shuddered as the aftershocks continued to move through her, knowing how close she'd come to doing something unforgivable. Leaning down to kiss him, Mari rocked her hips to coax a groan from him. She drank in his desire for her, trying to soothe the thing inside her that still craved more.

"Spirits," Rio said with a chuckle when she finally moved to rest her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her to hold her close. "That was the biggest surge yet."

She nuzzled his neck. "Dohal came to me again."

Rio grunted. "He really does have quite the sense of timing."

"He says I call to him."

He trailed one hand over her back slowly. "Do you think that's true?"

She'd been trying to figure that out, but hadn't come to any real conclusions. "I have no idea. Possibly? There's definitely something in me that responds to him."

Rio reached for her chin and gently turned her face to meet his eyes. "You don't sound excited about that."

Guilt made her chest tight, but she knew she couldn't keep this from him. He trusted her to take care of him, and part of that was admitting when something like this happened. "I think he wanted me to do something with my magic that would have hurt you."

His eyebrows drew down. "Are you sure? You've never done anything to hurt me before."

"This was different. It came from a different place. It felt—I don't know—primal?"

"I don't mind a little pain." He showed her a breathtaking smile. "Most of the time I even like it."

"I've never played with anyone that way, and I'm certainly not going to start with you." Her hand drifted over his chest where scars marked his skin. Her father had harmed him so badly that the idea of doing anything that might remind him of that experience turned her stomach. "Plus, I have no idea what I'm doing with my magic at the best of times."

"Cisco could teach you. The non-magic part at least."

"And maybe Pricilla could help me figure out where the magical urges are coming from?"

"That sounds like a solid plan." Rio leaned to kiss her forehead. "And it sounds like you're feeling better."

"You always make me feel better. That's your magic." She tilted her chin to kiss him, sweetly at first, and then with more fervor. She slid her hands up his arms, moving them so they were above his head, her fingers interweaving with his. His cock surged eagerly to life between them once more. He purred when she rubbed against him. She decided that further discussions could wait until later, after she had shown him her appreciation at least once more, maybe twice more.

"It looks like I'm interrupting something."

They glanced up to find Cisco standing in the doorway, watching them with the sharp gaze of a predator.